updated or revised, the Copyright Office
a single application for a single fee. Why?
has instituted a special group registration
Because the copyright claimant for all the
procedure whereby a database and all the
elements of the multimedia work for which updates or other revisions made within any
protection is sought by Scrivener is the
three-month period may be registered in one
same—Scrivener—and all these elements
application. This way, a database need only be
are being published together as a single unit registered a maximum of four times per year, at the same time.
rather than each time it is updated or revised.
What about registering all the individual
bits of music, photos, video that Scrivener
Databases Qualifying for
licensed? That’s the province of the copyright Group Registration
owner of each individual licensed item.
Scrivener may not register such material since To qualify for group registration, all of the it is not the copyright claimant (owner).
following conditions must be met:
76 | THE COPYRIGHT HANDBOOK
• All of the updates or revisions must be Published Works
fixed or published only in machine-
readable copies.
Subject to the important exceptions dis-
• All of the updates or revisions must
cussed, below, two complete copies of a
have been created or published within
published work must be deposited. This
a three-month period, all within the
sounds quite simple, but there are some
same calendar year.
additional rules and limitations that we also
• All of the updates or revisions must be discuss below.
owned by the same copyright claimant. Works published in two or more editions
• All of the updates or revisions must
have the same general title.
Sometimes the same work is published
• The updates or revisions must be
simultaneously in two or more editions—
organized in a similar way.
for instance, in a hardcover and paperback
edition, or a trade edition and a more
expensively printed and bound collector’s
Satisfying Copyright Office
edition. Where this occurs, you must deposit
Deposit Requirements
the best edition of the work. The best edition
You must submit (deposit) one or two copies is the work of the highest quality, in terms of the work being registered with your
of printing and binding—for example, you
application. The Copyright Office reviews
would deposit a hardcover edition rather than
your deposit to make sure that the work is
the paperback version of a work. If there are
copyrightable and is accurately described
two hardcover versions, you would deposit
on your application form. Your registration the edition that is the better bound, larger in only covers the material that you deposit
size, or printed on the better paper. It’s up to
with the Copyright Office—except where
you to decide which edition is the better.
a special deposit of less than the entire
EXAMPLE 1: Acme Publishing Co.
work is made, such as for a multivolume
simultaneously publishes a novel in both
encyclopedia or an automated database.
paperback and hardback editions. Both
editions are identical in content. The
Unpublished Works
hardback is the better edition that should
be deposited when the novel is registered.
If you’re registering an unpublished work,
EXAMPLE 2: Philip self-publishes a treatise on
your application must be accompanied by
Byzantine art. Half the copies were printed
one complete copy of the work—that is, the
on ordinary paper and half on archival
copy must contain all the material you
quality paper. Philip should deposit a copy
wish to register. Unpublished works may be
of his treatise printed on the archival quality
deposited electronically (see below).
paper; it is the better edition.
CHAPTER 3 | COPYRIGHT REGISTRATION | 77
TIP
Periodical issues
The Copyright Office publishes a
How many copies of a periodical issue
circular describing in detail all the criteria used
to determine what constitutes the best edition need to be deposited depends on which of a work. If you’re in the publishing business,
registration form is used:
you may find it useful. You may download
• Form SE/Group: Deposit one copy of
Circular 7b from the Copyright Office website
each issue.
at www.copyright.gov or obtain it by cal ing or
• Form G/DN: Unless exempt, deposit
writing the Copyright Office.
one calendar month of daily newspaper
issues on positive 35mm silver-halide
You only need to deposit the best edition
microfilm, or one copy of each
of the work in existence at the time you
newsletter issue registered in a group.
register. This means if a better edition is
published after you have already registered, Registering individual contributions to
you do not need to deposit it with the
periodicals and other collective works
Copyright Office.
If you are registering an individual
EXAMPLE: Rachel self-publishes and
contribution to a collective work such
distributes 500 paper copies of a collection
as a magazine or newspaper article or a
of her poetry. She deposits two complete
contribution to an anthology, you must
copies when she registers the work. To her
register one complete copy of the best
surprise, all 500 copies are sold within a year. edition of the entire collective work—
She decides to self-publish another edition,
that is, the entire magazine or anthology.
but this time she has the book professional y Luckily, there is an exception for
typeset and printed by offset lithography.
newspapers: Instead of depositing the entire
Although the second edition of the work
newspaper, you need to deposit only the
is of much better print quality than the
section of the paper in which your article
first, Rachel need not deposit it with the
appeared. (Imagine depositing a copy of the
Copyright Office since it did not exist when
entire Sunday New York Times!)
she registered the work.
This rule also applies to registration of a
Make sure, however, that each of the
group of individual periodical contributions
editions has substantially the same content. using Form GR/CP—for instance, if you
If the second edition contains enough new
are registering 12 articles that appeared in
material to be considered a new version, it
12 different journals, you must deposit one
must be registered separately to protect the
complete copy of each journal.
new material.
&
nbsp; 78 | THE COPYRIGHT HANDBOOK
When only one copy need be deposited
When you register electronically, you’ll be
The Copyright Office permits the deposit of prompted to choose your deposit method.
one, rather than two, copies of the following To deposit electronically, you’ll upload the types of published works:
files when you complete your application.
• multimedia works
The online application form explains what
• works first published outside the
types of files are accepted and how to
United States (only one copy of the
upload them. If your work doesn’t qualify
first foreign edition need be deposited; for online deposit (or you don’t wish to
it need not be the best edition)
make such a deposit), you must postal mail
• advertising materials (you need to send one or two hard copies of the best edition of only one copy of the page in which an the work to the Copyright Office. The online
advertisement appeared in a periodical, application will prompt you to provide
not the entire periodical issue)
information for a shipping slip, which you
• lectures, sermons, speeches, and
must print out and attach to your deposit.
addresses published separately (that is, If you have more than one item to deposit,
not as part of a collection), and
attach a shipping slip to each. Postal mail
• tests and test answers published
your deposit to the address on the bottom
separately from each other.
of the shipping slip within 30 days.
Electronic Deposits
Deposits for Online Works
If you use the Copyright Office’s electronic Deposit requirements are different for web-
registration system, you may be able
sites and other online works than for works
to make your deposit by uploading an
published in the physical world. The Copy-
electronic copy to the Copyright Office
right Office gives you two deposit options.
website, rather than mailing a hard copy.
Option 1
Such electronic deposits are permitted (but
not required) if the work is:
Under the first deposit option, you must
• unpublished
provide a computer disk containing the
• published only electronically, or
entire work, clearly labeled with title and
• a published work for which the deposit author information and a representative hard-requirement is identifying material
copy sample of the work being registered.
(see below) or
If the work consists of less than five pages
• a published work for which there is a
of text or graphics, or three minutes of music,
special agreement requiring the hard-
sounds, or audiovisual material, you must
copy deposits to be sent separately to
deposit a copy of the entire work, along with
the Library of Congress.
a confirmation that it is complete.
CHAPTER 3 | COPYRIGHT REGISTRATION | 79
If the work is longer, you must deposit five
• the ROM disc(s),
representative pages or three representative
• instructional manual(s), and
minutes. This identifying material must
• any printed version of the work that is
include the work’s title and author, and a
sold with the multimedia package (for
copyright notice, if any.
example, a book sold with a CD-ROM).
Multimedia works used on computers
Option 2
typically contain software that enables
Alternatively, you may deposit a hard copy
the user to operate the CD-ROM or other
version of the entire work. No computer
storage medium; access, search, and retrieve
disk is required in this case.
the data; and produce screen displays. The
Your deposit should be in a format appro-
deposit must include identifying material
priate for the type of work being registered— for any such software in which copyright
for example, a hard-copy printout of text
is claimed by the applicant. (But if the
or graphics, or an audiocassette of music or
software is simply licensed from a third
sounds.
party, no such deposit is necessary.)
The deposit must consist of a printout
Works published online and off
of the program source code or object code.
However, the entire program need not
If a work is published both online and
be deposited. Instead, the applicant may
by distributing physical copies, you
deposit a printout of the first and last 25
must deposit the physical copies, not the
pages of the source code. Or, if the program
online materials. For example, if a work
contains trade secrets, the applicant has the
is published as a hardbound book and
option of depositing:
also transmitted online, two copies of the
• the first and last 25 pages of source
hardbound book must be deposited.
code with the portions containing
trade secrets blacked out, or
Deposits for Multimedia Works
• the first and last ten pages of source
code with no blacked-out portions, or
The Copyright Office has imposed special
• the first and last 25 pages of object
deposit requirements for multimedia works.
code, together with any ten or more
One complete copy of the best edition of a
consecutive pages of source code with
multimedia work first published in the United
no blacked-out portions, or
States must be deposited with the Copyright
• for programs consisting of fewer than
Office. Everything that is marketed or
25 pages, the entire program with the
distributed together must be deposited,
trade secret portions blacked out.
whether or not you’re the copyright claimant
for each element. This includes:
80 | THE COPYRIGHT HANDBOOK
For further details, see the Copyright
The printout or data records must be
Office brochure entitled Circular 61: Copyright marked to show the copyrightable revisions Registration for Computer Programs.
or updates from one representative publica-
The Copyright Office wishes multimedia tion date (if the database is published) or
applicants to inform it as to whether the
from one representative creation date (if the
operating software is part of the multimedia database is unpublished) within the three-
work, and where it is embodied—for example, month period covered by the registration;
on a CD-ROM or another medium.
or, alternatively, you may deposit a copy of
The Copyright Office has experienced some the actual updates or revisions made on a
difficulty in viewing a number of CD-ROM
representative date.
products that have been deposited because it
Descriptive statement. In addition, you
doesn’t have the proper equip ment. When this must submit a brief, typed descriptive st
ate-occurs, the copyright examiner will require
ment providing the following information:
the applicant to make a supplemental deposit
• the title of the database
of identifying material. For example, it might
• the name and address of the copyright
require a supplemental deposit of a videotape
claimant
showing the audiovisual elements in which
• the name and content of each separate
authorship is claimed.
file in a multiple-file database, including
its subject, the origin(s) of the data, and
Deposits for Electronic Databases
the approximate number of data records
it contains
The rules for electronic database deposits
• information about the nature, location,
are dependent on whether you are making a
and frequency of the changes within
group registration or nongroup registration.
the database or within the separate
data files in multiple-file databases, and
Deposit requirements for group registration
• information about the copyright
You must submit the following deposit with
notice, if one is used, as follows:
your registration application.
■
■
For a machine-readable notice, tran-
Identifying material. Identifying material
scribe the contents of the notice and
meeting the following requirements:
indicate the manner and frequency
• 50 representative pages of printout
with which it’s displayed—for example,
(or equivalent units, if reproduced in
at a user’s terminal only, at sign-on,
microfilm) from a single-file database, or
continuously on terminal display, or
• 50 representative complete data records
on printouts.
(not pages) from each updated data file
■
■
For a visual y perceptible notice on
in a multiple-file database.
any copies of the work (or on tape reels
CHAPTER 3 | COPYRIGHT REGISTRATION | 81
or containers), include a photocopy or
If your work exceeds 96 inches, you’l
another sample of the notice.
have to deposit identifying material rather
than the entire work. For example, instead of
Nongroup registration
depositing every volume of an encyclopedia
If your database doesn’t qualify for group
that takes up ten feet of shelf space, you
registration, or you do not wish to use that
The Copyright Handbook Page 15